Photographing Fisk Tanks

Sofiztikated

Hi Guys.

I'm looking for a bit of advice, and I'm hoping you can help me.

I am looking to photograph some fish tanks, with the fish in it, and was wondering what would be the best way to do this.

I am only a point and click photographer, I'm not getting new equipment just to do this, I only want some advice on the best way to use what I have.

My camera is one of those Kodak EasyShare ones, C633. I know, I know, but I have to use what I have.

What would be the best way to get some good shots of my fish?

mrmac

I have no idea what settings you can adjust on your camera, but try the following.

Reduce as much room light as possible, nice and dark. Have your tank light on. Turn off the automatic flash. See if you can increase your ISO settings. Go to the highest ISO value you have. If you can alter your shutter speed, aim for the highest shutter you can, which still gives you a bright and focused image. Mount your camera on a tripod, or a stack of books, or something very steady - and use the timer to take the shot.

Put the camera fairly close to the tank. If your camera has a macro mode, sometimes this can be indicated by a "Flower/Tulip" type icon, use that.

If you just don't have enough light from the tank light, you can use a desk lamp, shining into the tank from the side - best to have one on each side to reduce shadows.

Have a play with that, and let us know how it goes.

Sofiztikated

Mrmac, thank you.

I'll give that a blast this evening. I can up the ISO, that I know, the shutter speed, I'm not sure.

I suppose I'll have to give the glass a quick clean as well,

mrmac

Sofiztikated wrote: »

I suppose I'll have to give the glass a quick clean as well,

No harm!

Anouilh

Have you considered buying the waterproof housing for your camera (not madly expensive) and taking shots from within the tank?

There are plenty of tips and link on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/scubaphotos/discuss/72157594310895563/

All the reflections bouncing from the glass sides of the tank will be by-passed that way.

artyeva

i got this with no tripod - just hand held with the lens right up against the glass of a tank in the local pet shop

i did PP a bit in lightroom, i'll have a look back at what the settings were and what i did to it in LR if you want.

humberklog

Make sure the background is as you want it....





And try different angles to make it more interesting...




These were taken with a 30 year old, film camera, point and shoot that has a broken Ap ring so what can be achieved with this should easily be with a digital jobby.

Play with lighting, positioning and remember background (if wrong) will become the focal point.


I was hopping thread was gonna be about photographing Robert Fisk in some awful bother...ah well.

Sofiztikated

artyeva wrote: »

i got this with no tripod - just hand held with the lens right up against the glass of a tank in the local pet shop

i did PP a bit in lightroom, i'll have a look back at what the settings were and what i did to it in LR if you want.

Wow, Artyeva, thats fantastic!

Humberklog, They're pretty cool.

I'll play with it over the next couple of days, and I'll throw up what I manage to make happen.

These were my last attempts, ages ago. (I was trying to photo the algae growing to ID it.)


Actually, that wasn't bad looking back at it!


And before that, a bit blurry and fuzzy.

LeoB

I took these in Italy on Monday in an Aquarium. I had the flash positioned upwards and to the side to try and stop reflections. The place was reasonably well lit but some of the tanks were a bit dark, I messed up a few before I got a few I (my kids) were happy with.

[EMAIL="%3Ca%20href="][/EMAIL]

[EMAIL="%3Ca%20href="][/EMAIL]

My kids would not eat their fish dinner that evening:):):):)

Ricky91t

I knew i posted a thread about this ages ago!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055208266

And my best result

LeoB

Ricky, Plenty of fish in Rush and Skerries if you get to the motorbikes on July 4th:)